Knesset holds first meeting of Lobby for Strengthening the Jewish People

"Don’t ask what world Jewry can do for us. Ask what we can do for world Jewry," MK Hanegbi paraphrased Kennedy.

Sharansky speaking 370.
(photo credit:Sam Sokol)

The Knesset held the first meeting of the newly established “Lobby for
Strengthening the Jewish People” on Monday. The caucus, comprised of 40 MKs from
across the political spectrum, was established in concert with the Jewish Agency
for Israel.

In a letter read at the meeting, Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu and opposition leader Tzipi Livni wrote: “It is unusual for the prime
minister and the leader of the opposition to jointly sign a letter to a
parliamentary lobby. Our decision to do so relates to the importance of the goal
of this lobby – strengthening the Jewish people and the connection between
Israel and the Diaspora, developing the Jewish identity of the younger
generation of Jews and deepening Jewish tradition.”

Jewish Agency
Chairman Natan Sharansky agreed, stating that a recent 40 percent uptick in
French aliya was due to “the strong connection between French Jewry and the
State of Israel,” built through such educational programs as
MASA.

Sharansky expressed his hope that the newly established caucus
would support increasing funding for programs “strengthening the Jewish
world.”

MK Nachman Shai, who serves as co-chairman of the lobby, with MK
Tzachi Hanegbi, stated that he was “fearful” that the bond between the State of
Israel and world Jewry “could weaken.” As such, he asserted, Israel “must invest
in future generations, in the young, and in those without a connection to
Israel, and build with them, and through them, a new relationship based on
mutual concern.”

Riffing former president John F. Kennedy, Hanegbi
quipped, “Don’t ask what world Jewry can do for us. Ask what we can do for world
Jewry: To help Jews maintain their Jewish identity; to strengthen their
connection to Israel; to deepen their Jewish education; and to increase their
desire to build a life here in the homeland of the Jewish people.”

The
new lobby comes a month after Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein told Israeli Jewish
Congress CEO Michel Gourary that he believed “we will have a caucus of that
kind.”

Edelstein was responding to a request by Gourary and several
European Jewish leaders that parliamentarians establish a Knesset caucus aimed
at “reinforcing” relations between Israeli and Jewish communities abroad and
“especially in Europe.”